Babcock & Wilcox boosts profit 27%

JoanE. Solsman

Babcock & Wilcox Co.
BWC
third-quarter earnings rose 27% as the nuclear-infrastructure company continued to notch revenue gains across its business segments.

Shares were down 2.2% at $22.07 after hours, as revenue was weaker than expected. Through the close, the stock has fallen 12% since the start of the year, weaker than the wider market.

The company, which builds nuclear equipment and other power systems, was spun off from McDermott International Inc.
MDR, -2.07%
last year. Its revenue has been climbing consistently, but its earnings have been erratic because of charges related to the loss of a power-plant contract.

For the latest period, the company posted a profit of $45.7 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with $35.9 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding accounting for research-and-development costs received by a subsidiary and the finalization of that nuclear energy contract loss, earnings were 44 cents a share in the latest period.

Nuclear energy segment revenue jumped 77% primarily because of replacement steam generator component manufacturing and nuclear services and projects. In the power generation segment--the largest contributor to the top line--revenue rose 15%.

Revenue was up 4.4% and 29% in the nuclear operations segment and the technical services segment, respectively.

Backlog, an indication of future sales, increased 0.4% from the second quarter to $4.65 billion.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only.
Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.